Kuroko no Hope and Despair
by Happy Camper27
Summary: Instead of joining the basketball club at Seirin, Kuroko stays away from basketball, the pain of the GoM's betrayal still to raw. In doing so, he receives a letter from the top school in Tokyo—Hope's Peak Academy. Oneshot (possible two shot, if I get more inspiration for this -verse).


**Universe: Kuroko no Basuke/Kuroko's Basketball and Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc/Dangan Ronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei**

**Summary: Instead of joining the basketball club at Seirin, Kuroko stays away from basketball, the pain of the GoM's betrayal still to raw. In doing so, he receives a letter from the top school in Tokyo—Hope's Peak Academy. **

**Warnings: Craziness, gore (not hardcore, but this is Dangan Ronpa. What do you expect?), AU on both sides, manipulation, dark themes, murder, general insanity, etc.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke or Dangan Ronpa. **

_Kuroko no Hope and Despair_

It is after their third national championship title that everything finally crumbles for Kuroko.

For the first time he can remember, he hates basketball. Hates hates _hates_ it, and everything linked to it. So he turns his back on it. On basketball, on Teikou and everything it stood for, on _them_.

He decides to go to a small school, hoping to simply fade out of sight and be forgotten by _them_ and every_thing_ and every_one_.

He fails.

It is not long into his second month at Seirin that he receives a letter in the post from one 'Kirigiri Jin'. When he opens it, reads it…

…well, it's a whole new world.

(Even if he does try to run, at first.)

(They catch him anyway.)

…

He approaches the gates of his new school, dressed in the black blazer, white button-up, red tie, and black pants of his new uniform. The main school hall veritably towers above the rest of the city surrounding it, making an imposing figure.

He looks down, suddenly unsure. There was no backing out now; the ones who had chased him down when he had tried to run had made that very clear. But could he do it? Could he completely turn away from _them?_ For even as he had turned his back on _them_, there had still been a tiny portion of him that cried out for him to try and save _them_.

Could he really abandon _them_ to their fates like _they_ had abandoned him?

Could he give up on _them_?

He closes his eyes as he reaches his conclusion. He could leave _them_ behind. After all, it wasn't really running away if _they_ had been running ever further away since the beginning, was it?

(It feels oddly freeing to walk through the gates of Hope's Peak.)

(Like the weight of the world is suddenly off his shoulders.)

…

It is when he is introduced to his class that he first meets _her_. He is the Super High School Level Phantom, a member of Class 78. The former Phantom Sixth Man of the Generation of Miracles.

And for a moment…_she_ shown brighter than even Aomine had ever managed.

It isn't until he decides to dorm at the school (his parents were always away on business, making their fortunes—forgetting he even existed, so why return to an empty apartment? He certainly sees no point) that he has his first personal encounter with _her_.

He walks away with _her_ name ringing in his mind.

(_Enoshima Junko_.)

(When he looks back, many years in the future, he realizes that that moment, that meeting…was the beginning of the end.)

…

He finds himself slowly relaxing in Hope's Peak. There isn't the same pressure as there was in Teikou—no motto of 'A hundred battles, a hundred victories'. He fits in, as most of his classmates and peers are oddballs with peculiar habits and eccentric personalities and most if not all of them are _broken_.

_Fractured_.

It is a humbling realization, and a freeing one. For once, he doesn't have to conceal his emotions for others, for the victory of the team. He doesn't have to hide the fractures in his psyche. He can just…_be_.

And finally…he can let go of the numbness that has plagued him for so long and _feel_.

It's a novel experience.

(Hope's Peak is a new start—fresh and uncontaminated by memories of Teikou.)

(He quite likes that.)

…

It is near the end of the year that he has his first, extended encounter with a prep-course student. It leaves him stunned at the fury and jealousy of those who are not selected to be part of the main course.

"Who are you to look down on us, you s***h**d?!" the student demands of him, clearly seeing his naturally blank face as somehow condescending. "You main course students are all the same—arrogant and self-entitled! Like you're the f*****g best in the f*****g world! You should all go jump off a cliff!"

Kuroko freezes at this, horror and uncertainty ripping through him. Has he really grown so arrogant, like this prep school student says? Has he become like _them_, so full of himself that he is blind to others? To their jealousy and their emotions?

Has he become a monster like _they_ did?

It's then that a familiar body steps in. "Jump off a cliff? I'd, like, rather not. And besides, aren't you the one who's arrogant, trying to prove you're, like, better than a main course student when the faculty, like, placed you where you're suited to be?" the sharp tones of Enoshima-san's voice pierce the air. "If anyone should be jumping off a cliff…" she looked up at him with icy blue eyes, and the prep school took a step back. "It's you."

The tension is almost tangible. Finally, the prep school student finally turns tail and runs, leaving Enoshima-san huffing in his wake.

"Really, idiots like that make me, like, _so_ irritated." She scoffs, turning to look at Kuroko. "He was lying, you know." She states easily, making Kuroko look up at her with wide eyes.

"You aren't arrogant. You're simply talented—and they're jealous of that."

Her hug is entirely unexpected and very needed. Kuroko can't even remember the last time he was hugged; he quickly melts into the encompassing warmth of her arms, going limp. She giggles, placing her head on top of his.

(He doesn't see her wild, insane grin.)

(Later, when he's too deep and too far gone to care, he does see it. It's the most glorious thing he's ever seen.)

…

It isn't until the middle of his second year that he finally meets one of _them_ again.

They (Class 78) are out on a class-wide shopping trip/outing/fun day that they had been planning on for a month when he bumps into Midorima. The greenet is clearly searching for his lucky item of the day when he quite literally bumps into Kuroko.

Kuroko is just reaching for the last bunny plush doll (which he plans on giving Enoshima for a Christmas [the model having expressed an interest in the Western version of the winter holiday]) when a long fingered hand deftly snatches the doll before he can reach it. He looks around, feeling rather irritated, and realizes that the one who has snatched the doll is none other than his green haired former teammate.

Their eyes meet.

Midorima takes a second to realize what he's seeing before letting out a sharp cry and jolting back. "Ku-Kuroko?!"

"It has been a long time, Midorima-kun." Kuroko greets him, feeling his mouth sour at the use of the familiar honorific in relation to his former teammate. He can feel the hatehate_hate_ and bitterness that wells up in him as he looks at Midorima, feel the betrayal and fury and hurt that he had formerly attempted to suppress.

But now he has too much practice at being more open, at letting others see how he feels. And why not? It is not like he has anything to hide from his current peers. His emotions must be showing on his face, for Midorima looks at him with an almost tentative expression before speaking.

"What are you doing here?"

Kuroko feels his guts twist, desperately not wanting to answer, but unfortunately having to. "We are out shopping for the day," he answers, making Midorima's eye twitch behind his glasses.

"We?"

"My classmates and I."

Before either of them can say anymore, a black haired boy with silvery gray eyes interrupts them, throwing his arm over Midorima's shoulder.

"Hey, Shin-chan!" he chirps brightly. "Who's this?" Midorima shoves the boy's arm off his shoulder snapping at him.

"Takao!" he doesn't sound quite angry; more fondly irritated, in so much that Midorima is capable of such.

"Aw, Shin-chan!" Takao whines, laughing cheerfully as he tries to wrap his arm around Midorima's shoulders again. In the midst of their argument, they seem to have forgotten Kuroko standing there. He starts to move away before Midorima catches his arm sharply.

"Kuroko," he says abruptly serious and worried, "where did you go? We couldn't find you—did you forget our promise? Even Akashi couldn't—"

Thankfully, he is cut off by the arrival of one of Kuroko's classmates, Kuwata Leon.

"Hey, Kuroko!" he cheers, ruffling Kuroko's hair (much to his annoyance). "What do ya think?" he holds up a pair of sparkly earrings. "Do ya think she'll like 'em?"

Kuroko barely refrains from rolling his eyes. 'She' is Kuwata's current girlfriend who attends one of the other schools in Tokyo, one of his many flings that he enjoys. "I think Kuwata-kun is a hopeless womanizer," he states bluntly, making Kuwata laugh awkwardly.

"H-hey, K-Kuroko—" he begins, but Kuroko cuts him off.

"But I think that Hitori-san will like them." Kuwata chuckles, patting Kuroko's back.

"Thanks, man!" Kuwata looks at Midorima and his companion, Takao-san, with a quick, assessing eye. "Who're these?"

Midorima opens his mouth, but Takao cuts him off before he can say anything. "Hey, you're Kuwata Leon-san, right?" when Kuwata nods, Takao-san _beams_. "Can I get an autograph? I absolutely _love_ your newest album!" he begs the Super High School Level Baseball Star turned Super High School Level Musician. Kuwata rubs the back of his head self deprecatingly as he agrees, signing a CD copy of the album that Takao-san happens to have with him.

After that, Kuwata sweeps Kuroko off with him, cheerfully (if somewhat arrogantly) dragging Kuroko along with him to accompany him, leaving Midorima and Takao behind them.

As he is surrounded by his classmates, all a little broken, all a little odd, all a little _off_, he can feel the bitterness and betrayal and hatehate_hate_ that had filled him when he encountered one of _them_ fading.

Maybe he had run away. Run away from his problems, from his fractured and crumbling friendships, from Teikou, from his memories…but he had found _this_.

For the first time since that third championship title, Kuroko finally feels as though he has found his place in the world.

(It's a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest, and it almost makes him stumble with the sudden feeling of _belonging_.)

(It is the end of the beginning of the end, moving from the Prologue to the First Act.)

…

It is the middle of their second year when everything begins to fall apart. Hope's Peak Academy has their dirty laundry aired—human experimentation and nonconsensual to boot—and decides to close by the end of the year, issuing a letter to the press and the students. They don't accept any more students. Classes 77 and 78 are the last classes of Hope's Peak.

Then the whole of the prep course commits suicide. All of them—except one; the one who was the result of the forceful, nonconsensual human experimentation. Hinata Hajime of Class 77…or, as they called him when they were done with their experiments…Kamukura Izuru. The Ultimate Hope of Humanity.

(Everything is crumbling again and Kuroko can't help but let himself fall into helpless despair; the place he started to call home, destroyed, decommissioned…)

(He looks back, and finds it hopelessly ironic that 'The Ultimate Hope of Humanity' became one of hope's worst enemies—a Remnant of Despair.)

…

Then they are fighting back, in a way that Enoshima and Ikusaba are pushing them to do; a wave of despair begins to crash over the world and they are the cause. Enoshima leads them, pulling them along into a spiral of insanity and murder and feverish devotion. It's intoxicating and addicting and all he can think of.

His hatehate_hate_ of _them_ is no longer directed to just five people—_them_ becomes the whole world, the rest of humanity who has wronged him, has wronged _them all_.

He hatehate_hates_ the whole world, and is completely intoxicated with the pure euphoria of insanity.

(He has been taken too deep, too _far_, to come back, not without drastic measures.)

(Then _she_ changes, and everything—everything they had worked for, the victory of beginning to overwhelm the world with their insanity and despair—crumbles to ash in his mouth.)

…

He wakes up.

His last memory is of his first day at Hope's Peak.

And he is trapped, in a game of mutual killing.

(As he recovers his memory, later, he wishes that he had never forgotten. But at the same time…he wishes that he never remembered.)

(It's the end of the First Act, and the beginning of the Second.)

…

Aomine had changed. They had all changed, really. The Generation of Miracles had been dragged from their thrones at the top of the world kicking and screaming by a tiny, unknown team from a no-name school.

Losing had changed them.

And it was only then that they realized what they had lost. The final member of their sextet…they hadn't seen him since that fateful final match. It is a wrenching gap in their dynamic, in their friendship, in their goddamn _hearts_.

Aomine's in his third year of high school, still on the basketball team, still as wild as ever, but calmer, more tempered by time and experience and _losing_, when the first video comes out.

It airs across the world, and cops lay siege to the shell of Hope's Peak Academy.

Aomine doesn't care. Then he sees the video, sees the people trapped in there. He almost has a heart attack.

_Tetsu_ is one of those trapped in there. _Tetsu_ is a member of the final class of Hope's Peak. _Tetsu_ is caught up in the middle of a dangerous, deranged game of murder and execution, and in more danger than Aomine had ever thought possible.

(The rest of the Generation of Miracles is the same.)

(They had never realized what they had until it was lost to them.)

…

They stand in front of the door. The huge, iron door that has sealed them in this hellish prison, their own _personal_ hell. Naegi holds the switch in his hands, and they stand seven abreast.

Naegi.

Kirigiri.

Togami.

Fukawa.

Asahina.

Hagakure.

And Kuroko.

Naegi glances around at them, unsure at what they would find. Was the world outside truly a wasteland, destroyed by Enoshima?

Kuroko cannot blame him; if it is true…then are they right in wanting to leave? Even after the deaths, after Maizono and Kuwata and Fujisaki and Oowada and Ishimaru and Yamada and Celes and Oogami and Alter Ego and Ikusaba…can they still do what they have worked so hard towards?

Yes.

Naegi nods, and presses the button. The red light turn as the sirens flare loudly. The mechanisms keeping the door tightly shut whirr. And the door…

…opens.

(It's a whole new world to them now. A new start. And they'll keep going. In memory of all those who died in their attempts to escape. For them.)

(And then the _hatehatehate_ that had festered in his heart…is abruptly reduced—not gone, oh no, _never_ gone, but _less_, in some way. Like honoring their dead classmates' memory is the cure to his pain and anger.)

(It's their new start, and they're not going to waste it. It's their Epilogue…and their Prologue.)

**/End.\**

**So…Yeah. This was partially inspired by ****pale rose fire****'s 'Kuroko no Free' oneshot. Now I'm going to go brood in a corner about my angsty muse.**

**Also, the next chapter of Emerald Musician **_**should**_** be up over the weekend, along with the first interlude. I make no promises.**

**R&R, please!**

**~Happy Camper27**


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